All writers have a style, but not all styles are good.
Whether a style is good or bad largely depends on whether it is appropriate to the work.
What does the style lend to the work as a whole?
Style should work with other elements to produce a final unity.
Style is the author's personal expression.
It reveals his/her way of perceiving experience and organizing perceptions.
Style includes the author's choice of words as well as arrangement of words into phrases, sentences, and paragraphs.
Elements of style: diction, imagery, and syntaxDiction: the author's choice of words and their effect on the total work ^Denotative meaning: the literal meaning of a word
^Connotative meaning: suggestions and associations resulting from a word or group of words.
Several words may have the same denotation, while differing significantly in their connotation.
Is a writer's style basically denotative or connotative? Imagery: the evocation of a sensory experience through words.
Literal images: Suggest no change or extension in the meaning of a word; supply specific, concrete details.
Figurative images, or figures of speech; similes and metaphors.
Recurrent images: Repetitions of the same or similar images throughout a work can reinforce an effect that the author is trying to create.
Symbols: The author's attempts to represent areas of human experience that ordinary language cannot express; the symbol evokes a concrete, objective reality while suggesting a level of meaning beyond that reality
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Style and literary standards
What does the style lend to the work as a whole?
Style should work with other elements to produce a final unity.
Style is the author's personal expression.
Elements of style:
diction, imagery, and syntaxDiction: the author's choice of words and their effect on the total work
^Denotative meaning: the literal meaning of a word
^Connotative meaning: suggestions and associations resulting from a word or group of words.
Several words may have the same denotation, while differing significantly in their connotation.
Is a writer's style basically denotative or connotative?
Imagery: the evocation of a sensory experience through words.